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UNVEILING EXERCISES 

LEWIS-CLARK STATUE 

CHARLOTTESVILLE 
VIRGINIA 



LEWIS-CLARK STATUE 

BY 
CHARLES KECK 



DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT 

The Gift of Paul Goodloe Mclnlhe, of Charlottesville 
The Work of Charles Keck, of New York 



Height of pedestal of Balfour Pink Granite, fourteen feet, two inches 
Height of bronze figures, eight feet, four inches 



The reliefs on the pedestal represent the Pacific slope, with the ocean 
in contact. On the front, or western panel, are the American eagle, the 
seals of the United States and the State of Virginia, the names of the 
explorers : 

MERIWETHER LEWIS- 1 774-1809 
WILLIAM CLARK- 1770-1838 

Then follows an inscription by Dr. Edwin A. Alderman : 

BOLD AND FARSEEING PATHFINDERS 
WHO CARRIED THE FLAG OF THE 
YOUNG REPUBLIC TO THE WESTERN 
OCEAN AND REVEALED AN UNKNOWN 
EMPIRE TO THE USES OF MANKIND 

Below the inscription are the thirteen stars of the original thirteen 
States, and beneath them the statement : 

A TERRITORY OF 385,000 SQUARE MILES WAS ADDED TO THE 
COUNTRY BY THE EFFORTS OF THESE MEN • AN AREA LARGER 
THAN THE THEN EXISTING SIZE OF THE UNITED STATES 

Around the base of the bronze figures are bas-reliefs of Lewis and 
Clark entering a council of Indians ; the Indian guide, Sacagawea, return- 
ing to her tribe ; Indians admiring the huge negro of the party ; an Indian 
dance ; a buffalo hunt in which Lewis and Clark joined. 



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THE UNVEILING 



of the 



LEWIS-CLARK STATUE 



at 



MIDWAY PARK 



in the 



City of Charlottesville, Virginia 



November Twenty-One, Nineteen Hundred Nineteen 

at Three O'clock in the Afternoon 

Being a Record of the Exercises attending the Unveiling 
Edited by W. M. FORREST 



Published by 

THE CITY OF CHARLOTTESVILLE 

1919 



n 



By TrckQsfer 

JUN 1 1920 



( 



Q The Program 



*? 
^ 



5^ 



Chairman 

W. M. Forrest 

President Charlottesville City Council 

Chorus of School Children 
"America " 

Prayer 

Rev. George L. Petrie, D. D. 

Pastor of Charlottesville Presbyterian Church 

Presentation of Statue 

President Edwin Anderson Alderman 

of the University of Virginia 

Unveiling of the Statue 

The Work of Charles Keck, Sculptor 

Miss Virginia Mclntire 

Acceptance of the Statue 
Hon. R. T. W. Duke, Jr. 

Chorus of School Children 
"America, the Beautiful " 

Historical Discourse 
Hon. Armistead Churchill Gordon 

Benediction 



The Exercises 



After the singing of "America" by a thousand children of the 
city PubHc Schools, Dr. Petrie ofifered the following prayer: 

O God, we recognize Thy presence and Thy overruling prov- 
idence. We are indebted to Thee for all our blessings. We 
thank Thee for this fair land by Thy providence our own, ref- 
uge for the oppressed, to which lovers of liberty have ever 
turned with hope, in which they have ever found freedom's 
choicest gifts, and where they have made their happy homes. 

We thank Thee that our forefathers from their vast estates, 
which were washed by the tides of the great Atlantic Sea, 
pressed inward and onward to the unmeasured treasures of ex- 
tended plains, great mountain ranges and spreading valleys of 
fertility and beauty, extracting from them Nature's hidden 
wealth. 

We thank Thee that, moved by a dauntless spirit of adven- 
ture and exploration, undeterred by stupendous difficulties, un- 
afraid when confronted by great perils, enduring hardships and 
privations, stimulated by high purposes, inspired by lofty ambi- 
tion, their achievements have reached from sea to sea of this 
great continent. Mountains and plains and valleys and rivers 
today are paying merited tribute to their heroic lives. 

We thank Thee that from our homes here, prompted by the 
Sage of Albemarle, two of Albemarle's own sons with great 
courage and invincible determination traversed this vast con- 
tinent then a pathless wild, conquered the frowning mountains 
and the far reaching plains, and successfully claimed and ef- 
fectively secured by personal presence and asserted rights and 
established proprietorship the vast northwest region for our 
own, an empire in extent and a treasury of wealth. 

We thank Thee that in these later days, on which our lives 
have fallen, a son of Albemarle has risen to pay his tribute to 
these heroic men of the days that are past, and has called on us 

(5) 



6 Unveiling Exercises 

all to unite with him in recognizing the merit and perpetuating 
the memory of splendid worth and splendid deed. 

We thank Thee for this memorial that in massive granite 
and bronze, graceful in beauty, elegant tracery and exquisite 
workmanship, shall long preserve the memories that should 
never die, and shall daily remind us amid life's hurried scenes, 
that there are high ideals, to which we should ever look, and 
great sacrifices which we should ever be willing to make for 
the general good. 

Help us to learn this lesgon well. Teach us, as we often shall 
pass this beautiful work of human art, to lift to this monument 
our eyes, and as we trace its lines or gaze upon its fascinating 
beauty and symmetry, to be more and more deeply impressed 
by the great truths for which it stands, with which it is in- 
scribed, and which in the eloquence of impressive calm and 
perfect silence it shall ever tell. 

Especially, as it adorns the entrance of our beloved institu- 
tion of youthful learning, may our children by it be impressed, 
and may they learn to pay a due regard to the great and good 
of other days, and to estimate aright the noble exploits of he- 
roic men. May they be thus led to seek to make of their lives 
that which is truly worth while, to attain the useful and the 
beautiful, to seek honor by sacrifice, and to win plaudits by 
service, to consecrate life to that which will redound to the 
welfare of their country and mankind. 

This prayer we offer in the name which is above all other 
names. Amen. 

The Chairman, Professor Forrest : 

Fellow Citizens, this speakers' platform is honored to-day by 
some who have no need to speak here. One such is Charles 
Keck, the artist whose skill has wrought into enduring bronze 
and stone the beauty and idealism which will soon be unveiled 
— this monument to Lewis and Clark. With his masterpiece 
before us it is needless for the sculptor to speak a word. An- 
other, is our fellow citizen and benefactor, Paul Goodloe Mcln- 
tire whose love for his native town has found expression in this 



Lewis-Clark Statue 7 

monument, and is flowering forth in many other gracious gifts 
of rare beauty and service to the city. Where such deeds 
abound no other voice is needed. 

But his gift must be pubhcly presented to the City, and I have 
the pleasure of announcing as spokesman for the donor, Presi- 
dent Edwin Anderson Alderman of the University of Virginia. 



Dr. Alderman : 

Presentation Address. 

We are gathered here today, in the peace and dignity of this 
autumn landscape, in the central spot of an ancient community 
rich in rare personalties and memories of great issues springing 
out of its life, to celebrate an event of historic grandeur; to set 
up before the eyes of the generations an object of everlasting 
charm and grace ; and, to conclude a purpose of filial piety and 
love. 

Fitter voices than mine shall relate to you the epic story of 
the purchase of the Louisiana territory by Thomas Jefferson 
whose home, like a shrine, looms just yonder upon the eastern 
horizon, and shall picture to you as figures of romance and ad- 
venture Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they fought 
their way across the shaggy continent in the strength of youth, 
in the pride of toil, and in the passion of patriotism. 

It is in accordance with the fitness of things that great world 
figures should move here and there upon the stage of so impe- 
rial a transaction. We see Napoleon Bonaparte, the last, let 
us thank God, of the world conquerors, but not, as we know to 
our sorrow, of the great world gamblers for power and domin- 
ion — idriven partly by whim and partly by necessity and partly 
by cunning and revenge, offering for a song to a newly born and 
struggling republic an empire greater in extent and possibility 
than the Europe of his ambitions. We see the common sense 
of Thomas Jeft'erson prevailing over philosophical theories and 
political misgivings, accepting and consummating this greatest 
real estate transaction in all history, by which for the present 
cost of the Woolworth building in New York a domain of 
137,735, square miles was added to the American Republic now 



8 Unveiung Exercises 

inhabited by over fifteen million English speaking people, pos- 
sessing seven and a half billion dollars of taxable wealth. We 
remark the patience of Robert Livingston, the calmness and 
good counsel of James Monroe, the impotent rage of the Bona- 
parte family, the just apprehension of William Pitt. We see 
clearly what only the wisest of that time saw dimly — the mighty 
shift brought about by this vast transfer of territory in the des- 
tines of mankind and the fortunes of that compelling theory of 
life which men were then just learning to name democracy. 

One may well ask why this memorial — the work of the pa- 
tient genius of a great artist whose presence here today adds sig- 
nificance to the occasion, and the gift of the steadfast love of a 
great citizen, should arise in its stateliness not to any of these 
world figures but to two gallant young men, subalterns in the 
armies of the young nation, who set out five score and fifteen 
years ago at the command of their neighbor, and friend, the 
President of the United States, to break paths through pathless 
woods, to voyage down vast unsailed rivers, to battle with the 
savage and the beast, to use science in dominion over nature, 
to stake their lives upon the steadiness of their muscles, their 
mental adroitness and spirit of humanity, to endure hunger and 
cold and privation for the sake of their country, and to emerge 
after three years of silence their heroic task performed and a 
new Empire. revealed to the uses of mankind. And the answer 
is not far to seek. Meriwether Lewis was born among these 
red hills. Lewis was a kinsman of Jefferson and Clark a brother 
of the great frontier hero George Rogers Clark who was born 
in this county. They gave their youth to self-sacrifice, glory, 
and adventure. In the annals of America there are few things 
pleasanter or more creditable than the story of Lewis and Clark. 
They were pioneers and pathfinders in a gigantic Odyssey be- 
side which the wandering Greeks were timid and provincial. 
Like Ulysses they too "ever with a frolic welcome took the 
thunder and the sunshine" and strong in will pushed on "to 
strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 

There is no fame just like the fame of the pioneer. Colum- 
bus staring over the stormy seas from the bow of his frail ship, 
Livingston lost in the African jungles. Read in his thundering 



Lewis-Clark Statue 9 

sea-plane, and Alcock and Brown leaping from continent to 
continent between the rising and setting of the sun — ithese deeds 
stimulate the imagination, and explain why art turns to these 
young pioneers and places them here in eternal sculptural 
beauty, and also why great cities planted where their camp fires 
burned, hold them in reverence and commemorate their fame. 
The votive stone we set up today however is far more signifi- 
cant than the mere erection of a memorial to splendid heroic 
kinsmen and neighbors. It is essentially a memorial to three 
great attributes of the complex human spirit, and is clothed 
with a weighty purpose and a lofty mission. 

Love of country shines out of the eyes of these young voy- 
ageurs and the children here today and those to come after 
them will catch from their passion the mystic meaning of that 
great conception which is embodied in the word patriotism so 
hard to define, like a mother's love or the rose's beauty or the 
sunset's glory, but so real that men think it sweet and fit to give 
their lives that it may endure and prevail. 

Sheer beauty here uplifts its moving appeal as the ultimate 
and most virile of spiritual stimulations, and once again art of- 
fers to please a "fierce democracy" as in ancient Athens the 
temple of Minerva and the works of Phideas pleased the peo- 
ple, and later in Italy, the Tower of Gietto and the canvas of 
Raphael moved the crowd to infinite sympathy and kindled in 
their souls divine conceptions of beautiful forms. And de- 
mocracy needs just such tutelage. It is a narrow view which 
beholds it as a mere thing of ruggedness and strength. Granted 
that its primal needs are strength and virtue and simplicity and 
freedom — Does it not also need beauty and dignity and gran- 
deur, if you will? Else, otherwise, it perish of vulgar strength. 

There is nothing too good for a democracy and nothing more 
manly than beauty. When such a life as the life of Robert 
Lee, for example, grows round and whole and entire, as our 
last word we declare it to be a beautiful life. After the meagre 
rocky earth has been prepared by elemental labor through cen- 
turies for its fruitful task, then as a sort of finality the flower 
blooms on the mountain side with a touch of imperishable 
beauty resting for a moment on its bright petals. This raw 



10 Unveiling Exercises 

country with its strange mixture of races is just beginning to 
understand how beneficent an influence art can and should be 
made in the lives of the people. These great masses are grop- 
ing for outlets to their emotions which shall correspond to their 
best aspirations and noble art is the medium for the expression 
of this legitimate desire which no wise society will neglect, un- 
less it is willing for restlessness and sensation and even lawless- 
ness to supersede art as popular stimulants. 

And finally, this statue, the work of Charles Keck, and the 
gift of Paul Goodloe Mclntire, teaches and shall teach for all 
time how great a love a man may bear though he wander far 
away and bufifet all the storms of life, for the home spot where 
he was born, the home friends who played with him in child- 
hood, the home scenes of hill and valley and mountain range 
that have never for him ceased to glitter with their brightness 
and nourish with their strength. It shall speak, too, of how 
steadfast a purpose may burn in the heart of a quiet gentle- 
man to make things about him better and more beautiful than 
they are, to help his fellows to a fuller life, "to heal the broken- 
hearted and to set at liberty them that are bruised." 

Gazing at these soaring figures with their eyes fixed on the 
far future and reflecting upon the source of such splendid giv- 
ing, those who grow to manhood and womanhood in this town 
will come to know that great citizenship still lives in Albemarle, 
expressing itself not only in adventure and physical daring but 
in self denial, moral courage, and social vision. And thus youth, 
upon which we build all our hopes, will again take it to heart 
that men become great by the might of great love and great 
sympathy and steadfast understanding of civic needs and com- 
munity progress. 

In the name and in behalf of Paul Goodloe Mclntire, an ar- 
tist in giving, a lover of beauty in form, and a friend of the peo- 
ple, 1 have the honor and privilege of presenting to the city of 
Charlottesville this memorial to Meriwether Lewis and William 
Clark. Let it typify throughout the ages, in its graceful strength 
and massive beauty, the triple message of fruitfulness, unself- 
ishness and devotion to duty which has always distinguished the 
Commonwealth of Virginia and given to her the proud author- 
ity that springs from the motherhood of the American Republic. 



Lewis-Clark Statue 11 

The Chairman : The monument, the gift of her father, will 
now be unveiled by Miss Virginia Mclntire. 

After the unveiling — the Chairman : 

In behalf of the City of Charlottesville, and by the request 
of the city authorities, this gift will now be accepted by one of 
our most distinguished citizens, Judge R. T. W. Duke. 



Judge Duke : 

Address of Acceptance. 
Dr. Alderman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

On behalf of my native City and carrying out the duty gra- 
ciously imposed upon me by those in authority, I accept with 
pride and pleasure this magnificent gift of a munificent giver. 

Pride in the fact that this beautiful work of art comes to us 
from one of our citizen, born and bred amongst us, who returns 
to us bringing the fruits of his years of labor and consecrates 
them alike to the memory of two of our great citizens, and to 
the adornment of the home of his nativity ; pleasure in feeling 
that this counterfeit presentment of these two heroes of ex- 
ploration will stand in this spot facing the West that they con- 
quered, and furnishing an adornment, an education and an in- 
spiration to the coming generations. 

For true Art whilst it adorns must educate and inspire. It 
fails in all of these things if it fails in one. I do not agree with 
the modern novelist who states that it has to do only with the 
emotions — not with ideas. I rather agree with Goethe who has 
said that, "A genuine work of art is like a work of nature, in- 
finite to our minds^ — seen, felt, heard, producing its effect even 
though it cannot really be known or its essence expressed in 
words." And so whilst it adorns, exciting all the emotions that 
beauty ever excites, it kindles the ideas and leads the mind to 
search for what Matthew Arnold once called beauty, "Truth 
seen from another side." And he who has once been inspired 
to search for Truth has placed his foot upon the first round of 
the ladder that leads to the eternal stars. 



12 Unveiling Exercises 

In educating the eye, Art necessarily educates the soul, 
teaching it to search for that beauty which exists in everything 
and everywhere and which in the words of the greatest of mod- 
ern sculptors, Rodin, is lacking nowhere — only our eyes lack 
the power to perceive it. And as our children gaze upon this 
superb creation of the great artist who has brought it into being 
they will learn from each line a new lesson and desire to know 
more of the divine creations of the genius of the children of 
men. It will lead them through emotions to high ideals and 
ideas, and ideas govern the world. It will lead them to study 
the lives of these two great explorers; to study the geography 
and history of the magnificent country their efforts gave to the 
Union ; to catch an inspiration from the lessons of self-sacrifice 
of dauntless courage and of unwearying hope these two men 
and their brave companions gave to the world. Thus will this 
monument be alike an adornment, an education, and an inspira- 
tion. 

And as such, Sir, I accept it at your hands, so charmingly pre- 
sented in words which are worthy of the occasion. To you 
who present it ; to the artist who conceived it, and above all to 
the patriotic, generous gentleman who gave it, we tender a thank- 
fulness for which words are inadequate. 

We will guard it well. We will cherish it with pride ; and as 
it stands here to bid the coming generations remember what 
great men sprang from this old red soil, we will cherish the 
hope that sons as great — if not greater — shall yet be born to 
bid the world see that Virginia has been, is, and will ever be the 
Virsfin Mother of transcendent men. 



Lewis-Clark Statue 13 

The school childrens' chorus then sang "America, the Beau- 
tiful." 

The Chairman : 

It is fitting that there be recited here today something of the 
story of these heroic men whose fame this statue is meant to 
keep alive. We are fortunate in having as our historian a well 
known son of Albemarle who at one time in his youth was 
school-master to our benefactor, the Honorable Armistead 
Churchill Gordon, of Staunton, Virginia : 

Mr. Gordon: 
The Lkwis and Clark Expedition : An Historical 
Discourse. 

In the century which has elapsed since Meriwether Lewis and 
William Clark blazed the way for civilization through the un- 
trodden wilderness of the Northwest and disclosed an empire 
rich in resources to the gaze of the young Republic, History has 
written upon her most amazing page the mighty story of Amer- 
ica. From a comparatively limited area including the new 
Commonwealths of an untried adventure in government, united 
by a compact, for an unsolved experiment of liberty, our coun- 
try has grown into the mightiest nation upon earth. The genius 
of the American people, under the influences of institutions es- 
tablished in justice and freedom, and fostered by the spirit of 
devotion, of self-sacrifice, and of resistless energy, in "one 
equal temper of heroic hearts," has builded upon this continent 
a great Nation, which has illustrated to the wondering peoples 
of the earth the beneficence of the arts of peace, and has over- 
thrown the strongholds of tyranny and oppression in the East- 
ern Hemisphere, where it "dazzled the land with deeds." 

In the contemplation of all that our country has come to be, 
and promises yet to become, it is wise and patriotic that we 
mark its progress by memorials, such as the monument which 
we dedicate today, that those of our own generation no less than 
they who shall follow us, may drink inspiration from the sacri- 
fices and self-abnegation of those men who were the founders 



14 Unveiling Exercises 

and makers of the Republic, and renewing in such visible dem- 
onstration an unalterable fidelity to the principles on which they 
established their mighty edifice, declare the invincible deter- 
mination that the tested and ordered governments which they 
wrought shall be immutably strengthened and continued in our 
affections and in our devotion. 

Xo monument ever raised upon American soil is more nearly 
representative and more fairly typical of our earlier history 
than is this splendid memorial to the two dauntless pioneers 
who, under the inspiration of our great Apostle of human free- 
dom opened the shut gates of a continent and proclaimed the 
physical and spiritual immensity of our onward march. Xo 
memorial structure of our western world could be more appro- 
priately situated ; for the home of Jefferson, the originator of 
the Columbian Exploration is within easy sight ; the birth places 
of ^leriwether Lewis and of William Clark's father are nearby 
in the county of Albemarle, and Paul Goodloe Mclntire, the 
patriotic and generous donor of the memorial, was born and 
spent his boyhood in this city of Charlottesville. This monu- 
ment illustrates in the bronze simulacra of the two explorers, 
so splendidly wrought by the chisel of the sculptor. Keck, the 
love of country characterizing all who have been thus connected 
with it: the patriotism of what Burke calls "the little platoon 
— '"the sub-division in society," to be attached to which is "the 
germ of public aft'ections." It typifies the genius of construc- 
tive statesmanship, the courage and devotion of daring adven- 
ture, the achievement made possible to the American citizen, 
and the noble development of American art. 

The many sided genius of Jefferson had contemplated the ex- 
ploration of what became later known as the Oregon country, 
many years before the Louisiana Purchase, through which his 
courage and prevision added an empire to the territorial posses- 
sions of the United States. Xapoleon had compelled its retro- 
cession by Spain to France, but had not finally taken possesion 
of it in 1800, the year before Jefferson was elected President, 
though even the ocean shores of the Oregon country were then 
scarcely known; Drake, "the little pirate" of Queen Elizabeth, 
who "singed the King of Spain's beard" on the Spanish main, 
had seen the Columbian coast in 1580; Cook had sighted it in 



Lewis-Clark Statue 15 

1778, and Vancouver had made a more thorough exploration in 
1793 ; while Meares under the Portuguese flag, had occupied a 
small part of the coast as early as 1788. In 1793 a few enter- 
prising fur traders, in private employment had already begun 
pushing into this unexplored region, and established trading 
posts ; in the same decade Spain and England clashed with one 
another in Nootka Sound, and war was only averted by the 
treaty of the Escurial in 1790. The Oregon littoral was in re- 
ality No Man's Land, though included impliedly in the Louisi- 
ana Purchase, until Lewis and Clark reached it with their ex- 
pedition across the Rocky Mountains and down the Columbia 
River. Whether or not Jefferson had already conceived his 
dream of the acquisition of the Trans-Mississippi country, is 
unknown, but in 1783, he had suggested to George Rogers 
Clark, the older brother of William Clark, an investigation of 
the region west of the Father of Waters. And subsequently, in 
1788 he had negotiated with the celebrated traveller, Ledyard, 
for an exploration of the northwestern Pacific coast, by way of 
Kamchatka from Russia, — tan enterprize which was begun, and 
ended almost in its inception by Ledyard's arrest on the order 
of the Russian Empress. On the 11th of Alay, 1791, Robert 
Gray, sailing under the direction of merchants in Boston, had 
stumbled upon the mouth of a great river on the Oregon coast, 
called by the fur-traders St. Roque, to which he gave the name 
of Columbia, after his own ship ; but he made no entrance into 
the river, that remained unexplored until the coming of the \'ir- 
ginia pioneers. 

In 1792 Jefferson proposed to the American Philosophical 
Society of Philadelphia, to send out an exploring party into the 
West with funds to be raised by subscription ; and it was under 
the auspices of this Society that Michaux, the French traveler 
and botanist, proceeded on his adventure westward, until he was 
recalled by the French minister. It is probable, that while Jef- 
ferson's thought had long been directed towards this magnifi- 
cent and mysterious region, his attitude towards it had been at 
first largely scientific ; for in his detailed instructions to Lewis, 
of June 20, 1803, he dwelt with emphasis and particularity on 
the journals and records which were to be kept, in which all 
possible scientific data were to be written, and which he in- 



16 Unveiung Exercises 

formed Lewis were to be prepared "with great pains ]and ac- 
curacy, to be entered distinctly and intelligibly for others as 
well as for yourself." His interest in natural history was al- 
ways unbounded; and it has been said of him that "it is proba- 
ble that no two men have done so much for science in America 
as Jefferson and Agassiz — iiot so much by their direct contribu- 
tions to knowledge as by the immense weight which they gave 
to scientific interests by their advocacy." Now, when the ac- 
quisition of this new territory from France was in prospect, his 
previous academic interest in the unknown country was intensi- 
fied by the practical view that it was highly desirable to be ac- 
quainted with the physical features and material resources of 
so vast a domain. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory 
was regarded by him as early as January 1803, as one of "pri- 
mary interest" to the United States, and negotiations in regard 
to it were already in progress. He sent a secret message to 
Congress, suggesting an exploring party to reach the Indian 
trade west of the Mississippi, recommending a modest appro- 
priation of a few thousand dollars for the purpose. Congress 
approved the project, and made the appropriation, and Jeffer- 
son at once went to work with preparations for the expedition, 
in which he continued to take a profound personal concern, un- 
til its important results were finally demonstrated. In his let- 
ter to Paul Allen, the editor and compiler with Nicholas Biddle 
of the first publication of Lewis and Clark's journals, which 
was written August 18, 1813, Jefferson gave a view of the life 
and work of Lewis, with especial reference to the Columbia 
River expedition, in which he states that even at the time of 
the Michaux movement, Lewis had been eager to take part in 
this exploration: "I proposed to the American Philosophical 
Society that we should set on foot a subscription to engage some 
competent person to explore that region in the opposite direc- 
tion; that is by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Stony 
Mountains and descending the nearest river to the Pacific. Cap- 
tain Lewis, being then stationed in Charlottesville, on the re- 
cruiting service, warmly solicited me to obtain for him the exe- 
cution of that object. I told him it was proposed that the per- 
son engaged should be attended by a single companion only, to 
avoid exciting alarm among the Indians. This did not deter 



Lewis-Clark Statue 17 

him; but Mr. Andre Michaux, a professed botanist, author of 
the flora Boreali Americana, and of the Histoire des Chesnes 
d'Amerique, offering his services they were accepted. He re- 
ceived his instructions ; and when he had reached Kentucky, in 
the prosecution of his journey, he was overtaken by an order 
from the Minister of France, then at Philadelphia, to relinquish 
the expedition, and to pursue elsewhere the botanical inquiries 
on which he was employed by that government; and thus failed 
the second attempt for exploring the region." It was, there- 
fore, natural, when the American Congress agreed to the Presi- 
dent's recommendation to send an exploring party into the 
northwestern country, that Jefferson's thought should finally 
turn to Lewis, who was then his private secretary, as its leader. 
While the Louisiana Territory had not yet been acquired by the 
United States, he believed that France would not object to the 
expedition and would regard the enterprise merely, as he curi- 
ously termed it, "as a literary pursuit." He knew well the met- 
tle of the young and adventurous soldier, whose leadership he 
concluded to seek ; and approved him as in many respects an 
ideal person for this adventure of hardship, daring and ro- 
mance. "Captain Lewis" he wrote to Allen, in his summary of 
the character and career of Lewis, "who had then been nearly 
two years with me as private secretary, immediately renewed 
his solicitations to have the direction of the party. I had now 
had opportunities of knowing him intimately ; of courage un- 
daunted ; possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose 
which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direc- 
tion ; careful as a father to those committed to his charge, yet 
steady in the maintenance of order and discipline ; intimate with 
the Indian character, customs and principles ; habituated to the 
hunting life; guarded by exact observation of the animals of his 
own country against losing time in the description of objects 
already possessed ; honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound un- 
derstanding, and of a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that what- 
ever he should report would be as certain as if seen by our- 
selves — with all these qualifications, as if selected and planted 
by nature in one body for this express purpose, I could have 
no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him." This is high 



18 Unveiung Exercises 

praise from such a source; but the results accomplished by 
Lewis amply justified Jefferson's estimate of him. 

Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18th, 1774, at the 
home of his father "Locust Hill," near what is now Ivy, on the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, a few miles west of Charlottes- 
ville. He came of a family whose representatives had been 
prominently identified with the history of colonial Virginia, and 
who were connected with George Washington through the in- 
termarriage of his sister, Eliz-abeth, with Fielding Lewis, the 
explorer's great-uncle. Like Jefiferson, Lewis was of Welsh 
extraction, and is said to have descended from Robert Lewis, 
emigrant to America from Brecon, Wales, in 1635, though this 
descent is controverted by eminent Virginia genealogists. His 
grandfather was Robert Lewis, who was a son of John Lewis 
and Frances Fielding, and brother of Fielding Lewis, Wash- 
ington's brother-in-law. Robert Lewis settled at Belvoir in Al- 
bemarle County, on the east side of the South West Mountains, 
later the home of Hugh Nelson, and his name is said by Bishop 
Meade, in his "Old Churches and Families" to have been in- 
scribed on the vestry book of Frederickville Parish, Albemarle 
County, as early as 1742. Robert Lewis married in 1725 Jane 
Meriwether, daughter of Nicholas Meriwether and Elizabeth 
Crawford; and of this union were born eleven children, all of 
whom lived to be grown and married. Their fourth son was 
William Lewis, who was an officer in the American Revolution. 
He married Lucy Meriwether, daughter of Thomas Meriwether 
and Elizabeth Thornton and resided at "Locust Hill," the birth- 
place of his distinguished son, a part of which is still owned by 
his descendants. Of the marriage of William Lewis and Lucy 
Meriwether were born two sons and one daughter, Meriwether, 
Reuben and Jane, the latter of whom married Edmund Ander- 
son, and it is her descendants who are the present possessors 
of a part of the "Locust Hill" estate, which has continued in 
the family since its purchase by Robert Lewis in 1730. Wil- 
liam Lewis died when his oldest son was a small boy, and his 
widow married Colonel William Marks, also a Revolutionary' 
patriot, and moved with her children to Georgia. Upon the 
death of Colonel Marks she returned to Locust Hill, and shortly 
afterwards, Meriwether Lewis, who had already served in the 



Lewis-Clark Statue 19 

Indian campaigns under General Wayne, and was then a young 
man of about twenty, volunteered with the troops called out to 
suppress the Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, and in 
1795, entered the regular army, in which he became a captain. 

In 1801, when Jefferson was inaugurated, the President se- 
lected him as his private secretary. When Jeft'erson deter- 
mined to send out this first exploring expedition ever under- 
taken by the United States Government, the purpose of which 
was to ascend the Missouri to its source, and then to cross the 
continent through a theretofore untraversed country to the Pa- 
cific Ocean, he had at first sought as a leader a trained scientist, 
who should possess "courage prudence, habits and health 
adapted to the woods, and some familiarity with the Indian 
character," and he had corresponded with some of his scientific 
friends on the subject. The search had been vain. No man 
could be found who combined the education and experience of 
the "trained scientist" with other and far more essential quali- 
fications of an explorer; and fortunately, as the event demon- 
strated, his choice fell on Lewis, who was eager for the under- 
taking, and whom he knew to be "brave, prudent, habituated to 
the woods and familiar with the Indian manners and character. 
He is not regularly educated," Jeft'erson wrote further of him 
at the time, "but he possesses a great mass of accurate infor- 
mation on all the subjects of nature which present themselves 
here, and will therefore readily select those only in his new 
route which shall be new." 

In order to acquire "a greater familiarity with the technical 
language of the natural sciences and readiness in the astronomi- 
cal observations necessary for the geography of his route," 
Lewis went to Philadelphia, the seat of the American Philo- 
sophical Society, and then the principal city of learning in the 
country, and studied under eminent specialists the rudiments of 
these sciences. It appears that in earlier life he had evinced a 
taste for botany, and had already acquired some knowledge and 
skill in this branch of knowledge. 

Upon the conclusion of his temporary studies, he chose, with 
Jefferson's approval, as a companion and associate who should 
share the honors, the labors, and the perils of the great adven- 
ture, William Clark, who was four years his senior and had 



/« 

^ 



20 Unveiling Exercises 

been his friend and comrade in the campaigns under General 
Wayne. The wisdom of this choice was demonstrated in every 
event of the expedition ; and the sympathy of the two leaders, 
their regard for each other, and their unanimity of purpose are 
emphasized by Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites in his story of the 
journals of the expedition which he edited. "The pages of the 
journals," writes Dr. Thwaites, "are aglow with human interest. 
The quiet, even temper of the camp ; the loving consideration 
that each of the two leaders felt for the other, the magnanimity 
of Lewis, officially the leader, in equally dividing every honor 
with his friend, and making no move without the latter's con- 
sent; the poetic temperament of Lewis, who loved flowers and 
animals, and in his notes discoursed like a philosopher who en- 
joyed the exercise of writing; the rugged character of Clark, 
who wrote in brief, pointed phrase, and, less educated of the 
two, spelled phonetically, capitalized chaotically, and occasion- 
ally slipped in his grammar — all these, and more, are evident on 
every page, causing the reader to deeply admire the men and to 
follow them in their often thrilling adventures with the keenest 
sympathy and anticipation." 

The Clarks, like the Lewises, were Albemarle people ; and 
William's father, John Clark, whose wife was Ann Rogers, 
lived near Monticello, where his famous older son, George Rog- 
ers Clark, the explorer of the Illinois country, was born in 1752. 
John Clark subsequently removed from Albemarle to Caroline 
County, Virginia ; and here William Clark, whose name is 
linked in American history with that of Meriwether Lewis, was 
born August 1, 1770. In 1784 this branch of the Clark family 
again moved, this time to Kentucky, and settled on a planta- 
tion called "^Mulberry Hill," on Beargrass Creek, near what is 
now the city of Louisville, where George Rogers Clark had 
built a fort. In this home an abundant hospitality prevailed, 
and among its guests were "the sturdy pioneers of the Kentucky 
movement, with their tales of Indian warfare and other perils 
and hardships of the earlier settlements ;" but "the second gen- 
eration of Kentucky emigrants," writes Dr. Thwaites, "also 
found here a welcome — gentlemen and lawyers of the new set- 
tlements. Revolutionary soldiers, seeking homes in the growing 



Lewis-Clark Statue 21 

West, men of culture and promise, permanent founders of a 
new civilization. Among them young 'Billy' was a marked fav- 
orite." In this environment, in "the dark and bloody ground," 
where Indian raids were still not infrequent, and from which 
expeditions against the Indians were continuous, young Clark 
early imbibed a knowledge of the Indian characteristics and 
methods of warfare, and with it the inevitable spirit of adven- 
ture. The expeditions against the Indians excited his interest 
and enthusiasm, and when little more than a boy he began to 
take part in them. He was a private in Colonel Hardin's ex- 
pedition against the Indians north of the Ohio; and was sent in 
the following year on a mission to the Creeks and Cherokees. 
In 1791 he was appointed ensign, and was acting second lieu- 
tenant under General Scott on the Wabash Indian expedition. 
His daring and intrepidity were conspicuous; and in May 1791, 
Dr. James O'Fallon wrote to William's brother. Colonel Jona- 
than Clark of Caroline County : "Your brother William is gone 
out on the expedition with General Scott. He is a youth of 
solid and promising parts, and as brave as C^sar." Two or 
three years later he was promoted to the position of first lieu- 
• tenant and was assigned to the Fourth Sub-Legion of General 
Anthony Wayne's western army. In the western country he 
was engaged in frequent encounters with the Indians, and was 
twice entrusted by General Wayne with important commissions 
to the Spaniards, upon whom he made an impression which cre- 
ated for him a "wholesome respect." During this time he be- 
came experienced in the control and management of considera- 
ble bodies of men, and this experience qualified him as the prin- 
cipal military director of the expedition to the Pacific. Prior to 
the time of the expedition Clark had returned from the army 
to his home in Kentucky where he devoted his time to his fam- 
ily and farm, and to settling the involved affairs of his brother, 
General George Rogers Clark, to which he sacrificed the larger 
portion of his own modest possessions. He accepted his friend, 
Meriwether Lewis's invitation to unite with him in the leader- 
ship of the exploring expedition in August, 1803, and joined 
him at St. Louis, where the adventurers gathered for their start. 
At the time of the expedition the boundaries and extent of 



22 Unveiling Exercises 

the territory west of the Mississippi were of vague and uncer- 
tain repute. The region had been neither explored nor mapped, 
and the dividing Hues between it and British America on the 
north and Mexico on the south were undefined ; while the north- 
western portion was in the possession of Indian tribes, with a 
few British fur-traders among them. The country where the 
Missouri River had its sources had never been entered by the 
white man; and even the extent of the Rocky Mountains, be- 
yond those sources was not known, so far as the territory ac- 
quired by the United States was concerned, though in British 
America they had been mapped under the name of the "Stonies."' 

Preparations for the expedition had been conducted with 
great secrecy, owing to the indefiniteness of Spain's possession 
and France's ownership in the vast area designated as the 
Louisiana Purchase; but in July, 1803, it became known at 
Washington that the treaty of May 2 of that year, ceding the 
Louisiana Territory to the United States by France, had been 
signed, and the need of secrecy ceasing, the preparations al- 
ready begun were continued with great activity. 

The expedition was organized as a military one, under the 
orders of the Secretary of War, and in charge of men who had 
been trained in the military profession. That its results could 
never have been accomplished by civilians, under the circum- 
stances which surrounded it, is demonstrated by the voluminous 
records made of it ; and though the first, it was one of the most 
conspicuous of the many notable achievements by Americans of 
military training in fields other than those of actual war. 

The party officially enrolled were twenty nine in number, con- 
sisting of twenty soldiers and nine frontiersmen, together with 
a number of French and half-breed voyageurs and interpreters, 
Clark's negro servant, York, and the Indian squaw, Sacajawea, 
a member of the Rocky Mountain Snake Tribe, making forty 
five in all, including the two leaders. Lewis embarked with 
some of these at Pittsburg August 31, 1803, and was joined by 
Clark and the others at Louisville. They went into camp at the 
Dubois or Wood River, in Illinois, opposite the mouth of the 
Missouri, in December, where they were drilled and instructed 
as soldiers and frontiersmen, and where they accumulated their 



Lewis-Clark Statue 2Z 

stores for the journey. All of the men of the party were for- 
mally enlisted in the army before starting, so that they might 
be kept under regular and proper discipline. During the period 
of their encampment at the Dubois River, Lewis went frequently 
to St. Louis, where he held conferences with French fur-traders 
and others who were familiar with portions of the country he 
proposed to traverse. 

The party broke camp and started up the Missouri on May 
4, 1804. They travelled in three boats the largest of which was 
rigged with sails and supplied with oars and with tow lines fas- 
tened to the mast poles to "track" the boats upstream through 
rapids. They were well equipped with firearms and ammuni- 
tion, and with abundant provision of food and clothing and 
numerous goods, gifts and trinkets for the Indians. For a pe- 
riod that was lacking in unusual adventure, they made their 
way up the river through what is now the State of Missouri, 
living bountifully upon the deer and wild turkeys that they 
found in profusion. Horses were led along shore for hunting, 
and for excursions into the adjacent country, and the large boat 
carried a swivel-gun for extraordinary defense. Along the 
banks of the turbid Missouri, then at flood-tide, the adventurers 
met the lonely trappers who were coming down the Platte and 
the Osage Rivers at this season in their canoes loaded with furs 
for St. Louis ; and their fires upon the river banks attracted the 
attention of the neighboring Indians, of whose attacks the fur- 
traders bade them beware. Some of the Indians proved friendly, 
and met them in council ; and Council Blufifs commemorates one 
of these meetings which was participated in by lowas, Omahas, 
Ricarees and Sioux. They passed on their way to visit the high 
Indian mound on the southside of the Missouri, where they 
were told that Blackbird, the great chief of the Omahas, was 
buried astride his war-horse, so that his spirit might always 
watch the French voyageurs and fur-trappers passing in their 
canoes up and down the river. 

The journey of the adventurers up the Missouri lasted through 
the summer and early autumn of 1804; and by October they 
were sixteen hundred n-iiles north of St. Louis, at the \'iliages 
of the Mandans, near where the city of Bismark, North Dakota, 



24 Unveiling Exercises 

now stands. They were received in a friendly manner by these 
Indians, though other neighboring tribes indicated hostihty. 
Here Lewis constructed a stockaded fort enclosing huts, over 
v/hich they hoisted the United States flag, and called it Fort 
]\Iandan. Their experience in spite of their secure shelter, was 
one of suffering on account of the extreme cold ; and though 
they were now in the country of the elk and the buffalo, it was 
hard to hunt in the winter weather, and the animals were poor. 
However, all winter the men engaged in the buffalo-chase, and 
laid up a supply of pemmican. By the end of March the river 
was clear of ice, and early in April, in their boats, to which 
they had added several new ones during the encampment, they 
pushed out on the ^Missouri, amid the cheers of the Canadian 
trappers and Indians on the shore. 

Up to this time the adventurers had traversed a country, 
which though little known, was yet travelled ground. Now they 
were passing into a region that encompassed all the possibili- 
ties of the unknown and mysterious. Their voyage had ceased 
to be the easy way which they had found it from St. Louis. The 
river was swifter and more dangerous, the banks were steeper 
and more rugged, and they were compelled to have more fre- 
quent recourse to their tow^-lines in order to make their slow and 
painful progress. The hunting parties which they sent out for 
game met with the theretofore unknown grizzly bears, which 
frequently attacked them. Their moccasins wore out. and their 
feet were lacerated by prickly-pear and stones along the precip- 
itous banks of the river. 

On May 26, 1805, they gained their first sight of the distant 
"Shining Mountains" as the Indians called the Rockies, and 
viewed with emotion the glittering and snow-clad ranges, which 
in that part of the continent had never been crossed by the foot 
of the white man. About the middle of August, having dis- 
covered in June and passed, by portaging their boats, the Great 
Falls of the Missouri, extending with their various declivities 
and rapids a distance of eighteen miles, they reached the head- 
waters of the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri, after traversing 
a country swarming with every variety of game and wild ani- 
mals, which was thronged with ferocious grizzlies and wolves, 



Lewis-Clark Statue 25 

infested by rattlesnakes and abounding in the river bottoms in 
mosquitoes. From the springs of the Jefferson Fork they passed 
with toilsome labor the "divide" of the Bitter-root Mountains, 
and descended in their boats, which they had portaged through 
the "divides" and passes of the Rockies, the Clearwater leading 
to the Columbia. On November 8, 1805, the boats had traversed 
the last portage of the Columbia, and when the morning fog 
lifted, the adventurers, 

"Like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes 
He stared at the Pacific and all his men 
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise. 

Silent, upon a peak in Darien," 

beheld the illimitable and shining expanse of the great ocean. 
They had arrived in sight of the object of their dangerous and 
romantic quest. They had been the earliest white men from the 
mouth of the ^lissouri to its sources ; they had been the first to 
cross the great ranges of the Middle Rockies, and they were the 
first to go down the Columbia River to the Pacific. 

They built on the south side of the river near its mouth a 
stockaded fort of log huts, which they named Fort Clatsop, 
after the neighboring Indian tribe ; and here they went into 
winter-quarters. They had achieved the ultimate object of their 
adventure ; but its perils and discomforts now reached their 
climax. They were surrounded by Indians, many of whom 
were hostile, and the dampness of the coast affected the health 
of the unaccustomed inlanders. No ships or trading mariners 
came to the Columbia during the winter, and their store of pro- 
visions ran low. But with indomitable energy and unfailing 
courage they spent their time in studying the habits and char- 
acteristics of the natives, in making scientific investigations, in 
writing up their journals and note books, and in carving trinkets 
and toys with which to obtain supplies from the savages ; and 
they celebrated Christmas and the New Year of 1806 with the 
discharge of fire-arms and such mild festivities as they were 
able to devise. 

With the coming of the spring they made ready for the 
homeward journey, which gave promise of even greater dan- 



26 Unveiling Exercises 

gers and troubles than those which they had already encoun- 
tered ; for their supplies were exhausted, and the Indian tribes, 
through whose country they had passed, were likely to prove 
more aggressive as they went back. They set out for Fort 
Clatsop upon their return on March 23, 1806. They were in 
dire straits. "The goods left to trade for food and horses when 
Lewis and Clark departed from the coast island," writes a his- 
torian of the expedition, "had dwindled to what could have been 
tied in two handkerchiefs ; but necessity proved the mother of 
invention, and the men cut the brass buttons from their tat- 
tered clothes and vended brass trinkets to the Indians. The 
medicine-chest was also sacrificed, every Indian tribe besieging 
the two captains for eye-water, fly-blisters, and other patent 
wares. The poverty of the white man roused the insolence of 
the natives on the return over the mountains. Rocks were rolled 
down on the boatmen at the worst portages by aggressive In- 
dians ; and once, when the hungry voyageurs were at a meal of 
dog-meat, an Indian impudently flung a live pup straight at Cap- 
tain Lewis's plate. In a trice the pup was back in the fellow's 
face; Lewis had seized a weapon, and the crestfallen aggressor 
had taken ignominiously to his heels." 

Their slow and anxious journey homeward was one of con- 
tinuous privation and peril. They were attacked by warriors 
of the Minetaree tribe, one of whom Lewis slew in personal 
combat. When they had crossed the mountains at Traveller's 
Rest Creek, "where the native trails converged," they divided 
into two parties, one under Lewis, going direct to the falls of 
the Missouri, and afterwards exploring a tributary river, in or- 
der to ascertain its availability as a fur-trade route towards the 
north; and the other under the leadership of Clark, seeking the 
head of navigation of the previous year, and thence crossing 
over to the Yellowstone, which they descended to its junction 
with the Missouri. After a separation of more than a month, 
the two parties were reunited, on August 12, below the mouth of 
the Yellowstone. Fur-traders from St. Louis up the Missouri 
brought them the first news that they had had from the outside 
world, and informed them that they had been given up for lost. 
At the Mandan stockade, one of the party. Colter, obsessed with 



Lewis-Clark Statue 27 

the life they had been leading asked leave to return to the wil- 
derness ; and here the dauntless Indian woman, Sacajawea, who 
had been their guide across the Rockies, also departed with her 
French-Canadian husband, Chaboneau, who had joined the 
party on its westward journey at Fort Mandan. The worn and 
ragged explorers after an absence of more than two years, 
reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806. 

The greatest pathfinders in the history of the United States 
had accomplished a feat of daring and intrepid adventure, and 
had returned from the discovery of what was a new world as 
large as the half of Europe. But as stirring as is the story of 
the great adventure itself, that of the records which were made 
of it, under Jefferson's explicit instructions, is hardly less ro- 
mantic. He had spoken of it in advance as "a literary pur- 
suit," and such it proved to be in one of its most interesting 
aspects. He had directed Lewis to keep journals of the pro- 
posed expedition, recording all possible scientific data, which 
were to be prepared "with great pains and accuracy." The 
notes and memoranda were to be preserved against possible loss 
by making copies of them — '"one of these copies (to) be writ- 
ten on the paper of the birch, as less liable to injury from damp 
than common paper." The instructions were obeyed with the 
fidelity and persistence which characterized the deeds and dis- 
coveries that the memoranda recorded. Both Lewis and Clark 
kept journals, as did the four sergeants of the company, Charles 
Floyd, Patrick Cass, John Ordway and Nathaniel Pryor. The 
captains had issued orders early in the expedition that the ser- 
geants, in addition to their other duties, should keep "separate 
journals from day to day of all passing occurrences, and such 
observations on the country, etc., as shall appear to them worthy 
of notice." Several of the privates vied with the olificers in the 
same work ; and tradition says that at least three of the twenty- 
three privates recorded their experiences in diaries, though only 
one private's note book is now known. The captains carried 
field-books in their pockets ; and it was their daily custom to jot 
down their notes and to sketch the rough outlines of maps and 
plans, which they later developed when in camp into more ex- 
act records. Dr. Thwaites, who finally collected, edited and 



28 Unveiling Exercises 

published in 1904. all this mass of material, says of the journals 
of the two leaders : "The manuscripts well exemplify the hab- 
its and characteristics of the two men — Clark the more expe- 
rienced frontiersman of the two, expressing himself with Doric 
simplicity and vigor of phrase, and often amusingly eccentric 
orthography ; Lewis, in more correct diction, inclined to expati- 
ate on details, especially with regard to Indians and natural his- 
tory, and frequently revealing a poetic temperament and a con- 
siderable fund of humor." 

The importance and significance of these records appear to 
have been fully understood and appreciated by the leaders of 
the expedition, not only during its progress, but upon their re- 
turn to civilization. Three days after their arrival at St. Louis, 
they began to put into definitive shape their literary work ; and 
the final entry in Clark's journal is: "Friday 25th. (26) Septr. 
1806. A fine morning. We commenced wrighting, etc." Clark 
was the draughtsman of the party and made maps, and sketches 
of birds, fishes, leaves, etc., in the note books of both Lewis and 
himself, and on separate sheets of paper. Dr. Thwaites says : 
"Collectively these journals of the captains cover each and every 
day the expedition was out — largely a double record, although 
there are occasional periods when we have the journal of but 
one of them." 

Jeflferson, in February, 1806, while the party were at the 
mouth of the Columbia River, sent a message to Congress stat- 
ing that "in pursuance of a measure proposed to Congress by a 
message of January 18, 1803, and sanctioned by their approba- 
tion for carrying it into execution. Captain Meriwether Lewis, 
of the First Regiment of Infantry, was appointed with a party 
of men to explore the river Missouri from its mouth to its 
source, and crossing the highlands by the shortest portage, to 
seek the best water communication thence to the Pacific Ocean; 
and Lieutenant Clark was appointed second in command. They 
were to enter into conference with the Indian Nations on their 
route with a view to the establishment of commerce with them. 
They entered the Missouri May 14, 1804, and on the 1st of No- 
vember took up their winter cjuarters near the ]\Iandan towns, 
1609 miles from the mouth of the river, in latitude 47° 21' 47" 



Lewis-Clark Statue 29 

north and longitude 99° 24' 45" west from Greenwich. On the 
8th of April 1805, they proceeded up the river in pursuance of 
the objects prescribed to them. A letter of the preceding day, 
April 7th, from Captain Lewis is herewith communicated. Dur- 
ing his stay among the Mandans, he had been able to lay down 
the Missouri according to courses and distances taken on his 
passage up it, corrected by frequent observations of longitude 
and latitude, and to add to the actual survey of this portion of 
the river a general map of the country between the Mississippi 
and Pacific from the thirty-fourth to the fifty-fourth degree of 
latitude. These additions are from information collected from 
Indians, with whom he had opportunities of communicating dur- 
ing his journey and residence with them. Copies of this map, 
are now presented to both Houses of Congress. With these I 
communicate also a statistical view, procured and forwarded by 
him, of the Indian nations inhabiting the Territory of Louisi- 
ana, and the countries adjacent to its northern and western 
borders, of their commerce and other interesting circumstances 
respecting them. In order to render the statement as complete 
as may be of the Indians inhabiting the country west of the 
Mississippi, I add Dr. Sibley's account of those residing in and 
adjacent to the Territory of Orleans." 

This message and the accompanying papers were promptly 
published as a public document. But as great as was Jeffer- 
son's eagerness for the disclosure to the world in all its details 
of the story of the great expedition, for a time nothing au- 
thentic was made public. Based on the government document 
mentioned, a number of compilations undertaking to describe 
the first year of the journey appeared in print, many of them 
very inaccurate. The first of the journals, containing a detailed 
report of the entire expedition, to be printed was that of Ser- 
geant Patrick Gass, whose notes written up by an Irish school- 
master, David McKeehan of Wellsburg, Virginia, appeared in 
1807, and was reprinted in several editions, and in a French 
translation in Paris in 1810. Jefferson had unfortunately left 
with Lewis and Clark the right to make use of their literary ma- 
terial in such publication as they saw fit ; but both men, on their 
return, had not only been commissioned generals, but had re- 



30 Unveiling Exercises 

ceived important and responsible government appointments, — 
Lewis, that of Governor of the Louisiana Territory, and Clark 
that of its Indian Agent. The duties incident to these offices 
in so vast a region were necessarily absorbing, and neither of 
them being of a literary turn, the publication of the journals 
was deferred. Urged by Jefferson, it was determined in 1807 
that Lewis should undertake the task of collecting and editing 
them ; and arrangements were made for their publication in 
Philadelphia. Lewis started on his way north, .and while trav- 
eling through Tennessee, stopped at the house of a settler some 
sixty miles southwest of Nashville, where he was murdered for 
the sake of the small sum of money on his person. The report 
was circulated, and was believed and accepted, without investi- 
gation, by Jefferson, that he had committed suicide ; but the fact 
of his murder seems now well established. Clark immediately 
took up the matter of the publication of the journals, and se- 
cured the assistance of Nicholas Biddle, a distinguished and 
cultivated young lawyer and literary man of Philadelphia. Bid- 
die completed his work in July 1811, but difficulties apparently 
insuperable arose with the publisher; and not until 1814 did 
the book appear, in an edition of two thousand copies, of which 
nearly six hundred were in some way lost or destroyed. This 
two-volume narrative, which is an abbreviated paraphrase, that 
has been commonly believed to be the actual journals of Lewis 
and Clark, has been in the intervening years reprinted in Amer- 
ica and England in many editions, and translated into German 
and Dutch. The Philadelphia publisher got into financial trou- 
ble ; and Clark himself wrote Jefferson more than two and a 
half years after the book's appearance that he himself had "not 
been so fortunate as to procure a nngle volume as yet." The 
slowness of the movement in the direction of printing the jour- 
nals of an enterprise which Jefferson had set on foot, and in 
both the making and the publication of which he had been 
greatly concerned, gave the great statesman and philosopher 
grave solicitude: and in 1813 we find him writing to Baron von 
Humboldt: "You will find it inconceivable that Lewis's journey 
to the Pacific should not yet have appeared; nor is it in my 
power to tell you the reason. The measures taken by his sur- 



Lewis-Clark Statue 31 

viving comrade, Clark, for the publication, have not answered 
our wishes in point of dispatch. I think, however, from what 
I have heard that the mere journal will be out within a few 
weeks in two volumes, 8vo. These I will take care to send you 
with the tobacco seed you desired, if it be possible for them to 
escape the thousand ships of our enemies spread over the ocean. 
The botanical and zoological discoveries of Lewis will probably 
experience greater delay, and become known to the world 
through other channels before that volume will be ready. The 
Atlas, I believe, waits on the leisure of the engraver." "Nearly 
a hundred years have elapsed," comments Dr. Thwaites in 1906 
on the last sentence of Jefferson's letter to Humboldt, "and we 
still await its publication." In 1816 Jefferson began a search 
for the manuscript journals, which seem to have disappeared, 
with the purpose of placing them in the custody of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society. He wrote to Professor Joseph F. 
Correa da Serra, seeking to interest him in the search, and de- 
scribing in some detail the documents, which he had examined 
at Monticello. These papers, he informed Da Serra, "are the 
property of the government, and fruits of the expedition un- 
dertaken at much expense of money and risk of valuable lives. 
They contain exactly the whole of the information which it was 
our object to obtain for the benefit of our own country and of 
the world, but we were willing to give to Lewis and Clark what- 
ever pecuniary benefits might be derived from publication and 
therefore left the papers in their hands, taking for granted that 
their interests would produce a speedy publication, which would 
be better if done under their direction. But the death of Capt. 
Lewis, the distance and occupations of General Clark, and the 
bankruptcy of their bookseller, have retarded the publication, 
and rendered necessary that the government should attend to 
the reclamation and security of the papers. Their recovery is 
now become an imperious duty. Their safest deposit as fast as 
they can be collected, will be the Philosophical Society, who no 
doubt will be so kind as to receive and preserve them, subject 
to the order of government. * * * As to any claims of in- 
dividuals to these papers, it is to observed that, as being the 
property of the public we are certain neither Lewis nor Clark 



32 Unveiung Exercises 

would undertake to convey away the right to them, and that 
they could not convey them, had they been capable of intending 
it. * * * My interference will, I trust, be excused not only 
from the portion which every citizen has in whatever is public, 
but from the peculiar part I have had in the design and execu- 
tion of this expedition." 

Jefferson obtained an order from Clark to Biddle, who was 
found to have a majority of the note books, which he proved 
disinclined to surrender except on such instructions. Clark, 
however, retained in possession at St. Louis, where he was then 
living, five of his own original journals, most of the maps of 
the expedition, and many miscellaneous documents concern- 
ing it. These numerous manuscripts remained unpublished 
for nearly seventy-five years in the vaults of the Philosophi- 
cal Society, practically unknown to historical investigators 
and scholars. In 1892 Dr. Elliott Coues, an eminent scientist 
and traveler, while engaged in getting out a new edition of Bid- 
die's work, learned of their existence, and used them in his 
notes and emendations ; but it was not until Dr. Thwaites un- 
dertook the publication in 1904 of his monumental work of the 
"Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804- 
1806," in which were included a large and rich collection of 
other note books, papers, letter and fragments found in the pos- 
session of Clark's descendants in New York, that the world 
came into possession of the full and varied account of the great 
transcontinental exploration. The original journals, far more 
extensive than the Biddle narrative, abound in voluminous scien- 
tific data — in botany, zoology, meteorology, geology, astronomy 
and ethnology, and in addition to this immense record of the la- 
bors of the expedition which the explorers brought back with 
them, Lewis sent the President "sixty seven specimens of earth, 
salt and mineral, and sixty specimens of plants." Jefferson's 
"literary pursuit," after more than a hundred years, illustrates 
with a continuity, a vividness and an overwhelming interest tlie 
genius and industry of the explorers, no less than their romantic 
daring and persistent faith. 

In spite of its dangers and difficulties and its long duration, 
no lives were lost on the expedition, save one. Lewis lived to 



Lewis-Clark Statue 33 

return to a position full of honors, with the promise of a career 
of further usefulness, that was broken by his early death. Clark 
survived the return of the exploring party more than thirty 
years, occupying the office, by appointment of Congress, of 
brigadier-general of the territory of Upper Louisiana, declining 
in the War of 1812 an appointment as brigadier-general in the 
army, and also the command then held by General Hull. Presi- 
dent Madison made him Governor of the Missouri Territory 
until its organization as a state in 1821, and he died at St. Louis 
September 1, 1838. while holding by appointment of President 
Monroe the position of Superintendent of Indian Afifairs at that 
city. 

Sergeant Charles Floyd, a young soldier aged about twenty 
years, was the only one of the expeditionary party who met 
death during the journey. He died near the site of what is now 
Sioux City, Iowa, on May 14, 1805, leaving a journal covering 
the period of his service : and the place of his burial on a 
neighboring bluff is marked by a stately monument. His name 
is worthy of remembrance by a grateful country, both because 
he gave his life in its service in a momentous enterprise, and be- 
cause the patronymic that he bore is, like those of Lewis and 
Clark, indissolubly linked with the subsequent story of the 
Oregon country. John Floyd, a first cousin of Sergeant Charles 
Floyd, who was for many years a member of Congress from 
Virginia, and later a distinguished Governor of the Common- 
wealth, had enjoyed the friendship of William Clark "from his 
earliest youth." He had named a son for George Rogers Clark, 
and his early enthusiasm had been awakened by the thrilling 
interest of the journey to the Pacific. In December, 1820, when 
a member of Congress, he brought for the first time to the at- 
tention of that body the question of American rights in the Co- 
lumbia country, to which Great Britian still laid claim under a 
vague title. By resolution Floyd obtained the appointment of a 
committee, of which he was chairman, "to inquire into the situ- 
ation of the settlements upon the Pacific Ocean and the expedi- 
ency of occupying the Columbia River." His report, founding 
the claim of the L^nited States to the disputed territory almost 
entirely upon our rights under the Louisiana Purchase, is a no- 



34 Unveiling Exercises 

table political document in American history, not only be- 
cause it laid the practical foundation for the planting of a 
great territory, but also because it expressed an intimation of 
the Monroe Doctrine in the assertion as against the alleged 
rights of Great Britain, which were based largely upon occupa- 
tion by the fur-traders, that "there is no longer territory to be 
obtained by settlement and discovery" on the American conti- 
nent. Floyd's bill provided that when the population of the 
American settlements amounted to 2000 souls, "all that por- 
tion of the United States north of the 42nd parallel of latitude 
and west of the Rocky Mountains is to be constituted a terri- 
tory of the United States, under the name of the Territory of 
Oregon." His resolutions thus contained not only the plan of 
settling a region destined to include great states and vast pop- 
ulations, but offered the first formal proposition to give to the 
new territory the historic designation which it has since borne. 
In the course of the debate on his proposal to occupy the Oregon 
country, which was long protracted, he gave utterance to the vi- 
sion which Jefferson's brain had encompassed, and which Lewis 
and Clark had made possible : 

"As we reach the Rocky Mountains," he said, "we should be 
unwise did we not pass that narrow space which separates the 
mountains from the Ocean, to secure advantages far greater 
than the existing advantages of all the country between the 
Mississippi and the mountains. Gentlemen are talking of nat- 
ural boundaries. Our natural boundary is the Pacific Ocean. 
The swelling tide of our population must and will roll on until 
that mighty Ocean interposes its waters and limits our terri- 
torial empire. Then with two Oceans washing our shores, the 
commercial wealth of the world is ours, and imagination can 
hardly conceive the greatness, the grandeur and the power that 
await us." 

Of all Jefferson's mighty achievements in the development of 
civilization and the emancipation of the human mind, none has 
exceeded in its momentous consequences the accomplishment of 
the Louisiana Purchase ; and of all the romance which its his- 
tory illustrates through more than a century, there is nothing 
that surpasses the bold and perilous adventure of the two Vir- 



Lewis-Clark Statue 35 

ginians, who first blazoned the way into the Oregon country and 
to the Pacific. Where they went through the untravelled and 
trackless territory, ascending and descending great rivers, cross- 
ing mighty and unsurmounted mountains, and encountering 
fierce hardships and harsh perils, the genius and enterprise of 
inflowing millions of men have created powerful states and 
builded populous cities. Agriculture and manufactures and min- 
ing have marched there hand in hand to continued and inex- 
haustible conquest ; and the commerce of the Orient, which 
throughout history has excited the imagination of mankind, has 
revealed herself to the charmed vision of the Oregon country, 
and yielded of her riches to its welcome approach. The or- 
dered system of our constitutions and laws shelters its wealth 
and dominion with the protecting aegis of liberty; and over its 
story shine like stars the immortal names of Meriwether Lewis 
and William Clark, whose indomitable courage and endurance, 
defying life and death, carved an empire out of a wilderness, 
and gave to succeeding generations of Americans the inherit- 
ance which they conquered. 

Authorities. 

Genealogies of the Lewis and Kindred Families, by John 
Meriwether McAllister and Lura Boulton Tandy, Columbia, Mo. 
1906; The Winning of the West, by Theodore Roosevelt, New 
York, 1896; Pathfinders of the West, by A. C. Laut, New York, 
1904; Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, New 
York, 1888; William and Mary College Quarterly, vol. IX, 1901 ; 
Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, by Bishop 
Meade, Philadelphia, 1889; Albemarle County in Virginia, by 
Edgar Woods, Charlottesville, Va. 1901 ; Annual Report of the 
American Historical Association for the Year 1903, vol. I, 
Washington, D. C. 1904; Messages and Papers of the Pre.-i- 
dents, vol. I, Washington, D. C. 1896; Life and Diary of John 
Floyd, by Charles H. Ambler, Richmond, Va. 1918; Cyclopedia 
of Political Science, edited by John J. Lalor, New York, 1893; 
Life of Thomas Jefferson, by Henry S. Randall, New York, 
1858; The True Thomas Jeft"erson, by William Eleroy Curtis, 



36 Unveiling Exercises 

Philadelphia, 1904; Cyclopedia of A'irginia Biography, edited 
by Lyon G. Tyler, New York, 1915; The South in the Build- 
ing of the Nation. Richmond, Va., 1909-1913; History of the 
Expedition Under the Command of Captain Lewis and Clark, 
prepared for the press by Paul Allen, esquire, New York, 1814; 
History of the Expedition under the Command of Lewis and 
Clark, Elliott Coues, New York, 1893 ; Original Journals of the 
Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, 
New York, 1904-05. 

The exercises of the day were concluded with the Benedic- 
tion by Dr. Petrie. 



The Michie Company, Printers 

Charlottesville, Va. 

1919 



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